SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 23 September 2025, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 22 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 13 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

We doubt SSC's key on this question.

Past simple also backshifts to past perfect, so option (a)'s 'were left' reports as 'had been left' just as the keyed 'have been left' does; this card follows SSC's key, (c), the form that changes only the auxiliary.

The answer below is still the option SSC's key marks, and we solve to that option.

A sentence is provided in indirect speech. From the four given options, choose the one that most accurately conveys the sentence in its corresponding direct speech. He wondered why the lights had been left on all night.

(a)He said, "Why were the lights left on all night?"
(b)He said, "Why are the lights left on all night?"
(c)He said, "Why have the lights been left on all night?"
(d)He said, "Why had the lights been left on all night?"

Answer

Why

Correct — C. Turning indirect speech into direct speech undoes the backshift that reporting caused.

The reported verb is had been left, past perfect passive.
Shift only the auxiliary back, had → have, and keep 'been left on all night'.
Restore question order and the question mark: 'Why have the lights been left on all night?'

That sentence is option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
He said, "Why were the lights left on all night?" — Were left rebuilds the verb: it drops 'been' and turns past perfect into past simple. The key reverses only the auxiliary, had → have, and keeps 'been left on all night' as reported.
(b)
He said, "Why are the lights left on all night?" — Are left is present simple passive. Reported after a past verb it backshifts to 'were left', not 'had been left', so it cannot be the direct form of this sentence.
(d)
He said, "Why had the lights been left on all night?" — Had been left is copied unchanged into the quotation, so nothing is undone. Past perfect places an event before another past moment, and the question names none.

Concept

Reporting speech after a past verb moves each tense one step back: present → past, present perfect → past perfect, past → past perfect.

Converting to direct speech runs that table backwards. It also restores the quotation marks, the question mark and question order: why have the lights, not why the lights had.

Past perfect in a report has more than one possible source. Have been left and were left both report as 'had been left', so (c) and (a) both fit the tense rule. The key takes (c), the form that changes only the auxiliary.

All four options use He said although the report says wondered, so the reporting verb decides nothing here.

Key facts

Present perfect reports as past perfect: have been left → had been left.
Past simple also reports as past perfect: 'Why did you lie to me?' → why I had lied to her.
A direct question restores question order: why have the lights been left, not why the lights had been left.
Past perfect places an event before another past moment.

Study next

The backshift table for reported speech, read in both directionsReported questions: statement order after asked or wonderedWhen past perfect stays unchanged in direct speech

Common traps

Copying the reported tense straight into the quotation, as option (d) does.
Reading 'are left' as the source: present simple reports as 'were left', not 'had been left'.

14 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.23 keys an unchanged past perfect, 'They had already left before I arrived', because 'before I arrived' supplies the later past moment that the leaving came before, a reference point this sentence lacks.

18 Sep 2025, 16:00, English Q.23 runs the rule forward: 'Why did you lie to me?' is keyed as 'why I had lied to her'.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Narration — all 65 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.